FROM PREVENTION TO RECOVERY

NAVIGATING AVIAN INFLUENZA: 

Webinar Transcript: September 22, 2022 

This text is being provided in a real-time format. Communication Access Realtime 

Translation (CART) or captioning is provided in order to facilitate communication 

accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: Hi, everyone, thanks for joining the webinar today. 

Today's presentation, “Navigating Avian Influenza: from prevention to 

recovery” is part of the USDA's Defend the Flock campaign promoting 

awareness about the importance of biosecurity and ways to prevent the 

spread of infectious poultry diseases like avian influenza. 

My name is Vera Simon-Nobes and I'm the coordinator of the Farm-Based 

Education Network, a project of Shelburne Farms based in Shelburne, 

Vermont. Shelburne Farms is an education non-profit on a mission to 

inspire and cultivate learning for a sustainable future. We welcome 

everyone to explore the big ideas of sustainability on our diversified 

working farm, which includes chickens and turkeys. The Farm-Based 

Education Network is a free member network established to strengthen and 

support the work of farmers, educators, and community leaders who 

provide access and experiences on working farms. 

Realtime streaming captions are available for this program. To view the 

captions, type the caption URL that you see on this slide. You can also click 

the CC button at the bottom of the screen. The URL to access the captions 

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can type that into your browser. The URL appears at the bottom of the 

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please note that the URL is case sensitive. 

To submit questions during today's program, you can click the Q&A button 

located at the bottom of your screen. 

Today we are so excited to be joined by Doctor Julie Gauthier, Doctor 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gauthier is the Assistant Director of Poultry Health for USDA, APHIS. 

Welcome, Julie. 

Dr. Julie Gauthier: Thanks Vera. I'm Julie and I'm a veterinarian working 

for, as Vera said, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. I 

have seen this disease, avian influenza, in my job all over the United States 

and also in other parts of the world. I am also a flock keeper, so I 

understand the challenges of keeping our flocks healthy and at the same 

time allowing the public to enjoy that contact with poultry and 

understanding how poultry are kept. On my small farm I have raised 

heritage-breed chickens, ducks, turkeys, and geese. I show them and I 

produce eggs, meat, and breeding stock. And I’ve hosted a lot of farm tours 

to promote the conservation of these endangered breeds. Next slide, 

please. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: Thank you. We are also joined by Cathryn Anderson 

today. Cathryn is Director of the Education Department at Pineland Farm in 

New Gloucester, Maine. Welcome, Cathryn. 

Cathryn Anderson:Thanks, Vera. It's such a pleasure to be here today. As 

Vera mentioned, I'm the director of the education department of Pineland 

Farms. We are a non-profit diversified farm in Maine that offers many 

opportunities for visitors to engage and explore agriculture and the 

environment. I have been on the team for over ten years, and I help 

oversee the egg-laying operation as well as most of the visitation on the 

farm throughout the year. And I'm happy to be here today, thank you. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: Thank you. Many of you are joining us today to learn 

more about the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian Influenza, also know as 

hi-path or hi-path AI for short. This outbreak is occurring in the United 

States right now. Dr. Gauthier will tell us a little bit about this disease– 

actually a lot about this disease—and what we should know about this 

current poultry health emergency. Thank you so much, Doctor Gauthier. 

Dr. Julie Gauthier: No problem. And I'm going to have a frank discussion 

with you about what's probably the most terrible disease that a poultry 

owner can experience- highly pathogenic avian influenza. That’s a mouthful 

so I generally refer to that as high path AI or HPAI. You might also see this 

in the news as bird flu, and they’re generally talking about this same virus 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

that is so deadly to our domestic poultry. The next slide, please. 

At this point in the current outbreak, which began in February of this year, 

we now have over 450 flocks that have been affected. Those would be both 

the large commercial flocks and also smaller flocks. It's about even 

numbers of the large flocks versus backyard flocks that are becoming 

infected. About 45 million birds at last count have been involved in this 

outbreak, so this is really, really significant for our nation's poultry. And we 

know that wild birds are the source for the majority of these cases in the 

current outbreak. About 85% of the cases that we have identified, we can 

attribute to the flocks catching a virus that was carried by wild birds. The 

way that wild birds can spread this is infected birds shed the virus in their 

droppings, in any of their bodily discharges, and it also can be in the 

feathers. Anything that that bird sneezes on, touches, poops on, people can 

then pick up that virus on their hand, their shoes, their clothes, any 

equipment, and then transport that virus from place to place. Next slide, 

please. 

Highly pathogenic avian influenza refers to the way it affects chickens 

primarily, not the way that it affects people or any other types of animals. 

High path AI means that it is deadly to chickens. Often, we’ll see a chicken 

flock, or large numbers of the birds in the flock, die without any signs at all. 

Sometimes we’ll get a little bit of an advance notice in that the birds will be 

lethargic, they might lack their usual energy, they won't eat well, their water 

consumption might decrease, and the hens may also have decreased egg 

production, or they will lay some very odd-looking eggs, either soft shell, no 

shell, or misshapen eggshells. The virus affects just about every tissue in 

the body. You will see swelling in the head, on the comb, eyelids, wattles, 

and parts of the legs. Oftentimes there will be purple discoloration or 

bruising on those non-feather parts of the body. In addition, it affects the 

respiratory tracks, so you will sometimes see nasal discharge, coughing, or 

sneezing. Again, it affects just about every cell in the body, so you can see 

nervous system signs: the birds will be staggering, incoordination, and then 

GI track signs, so diarrhea is possible. Next slide please. 

The really tough part about this virus is that there is no treatment. There is 

no cure. There's no medicine that we can give to affected flocks to allow 

them to survive and recover. What we can do is prevent infection in the first 

place. There are a number of steps that we can take in order to prevent our 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

flocks from becoming infected with the virus. I will go into some of those 

steps in the next few slides. 

First off, biosecurity planning is important, not only for avian influenza, but 

any poultry pathogen. You can do a lot to prevent any germs from entering 

your flock by taking certain steps that are practical, that you can afford, and 

that focus on the big risks to your flocks and the likely things that are going 

to happen. We can't write a one size fits all plan: each flock is very different 

in how they are kept, your concerns, and the area where you live. You need 

to customize your plan for your flock and those things that you are likely to 

do every day, every time. So, let me talk on the next few slides about some 

of those things that you could implement on your farm regardless of its size. 

First off, we know in particular with this outbreak of avian influenza, that wild 

waterfowl are the main source of the virus. It's really important to keep your 

birds away from ponds and other outdoor open water sources where your 

birds can hang out with wild waterfowl. We frequently find in the cases of 

small flocks that become infected in this year’s outbreak, that the owners 

report to us that their birds did spend time with wild waterfowl on ponds. 

So, that's a really big risk factor. I ask all of you to do what you can to 

prevent your birds from hanging out with their wild waterfowl friends. If you 

can, confine your birds to covered houses at this time, or runs, or at least 

put an overhead net to prevent wild birds from entering the poultry 

enclosures. I know some people are frustrated right now because many 

birds have been inside for a while since this outbreak started. I’ll suggest 

towards the end of some ways you can figure out what the risk is for the 

area where you live, and then make decisions based on your area whether 

or not you can turn your birds out. 

You also want to check around the poultry enclosure for wild bird 

carcasses—pick those up promptly—but also droppings are evidence that 

wild birds are nesting, or leaving feathers or other debris around. Make 

sure you clean those areas up. Also, you don't want to attract wild birds in 

any way. Wild birds are attracted by feed that is spilled, easily accessible 

feeders for a free lunch, or sharing water sources with your birds. One way 

to prevent or discourage wild birds from accessing the feed and water is to 

keep those feeders and waterers inside a shed, under cover, or inside a 

barn, if your birds are going in and out. Keep those under cover to 

discourage the wild birds from feeding alongside your birds. We can also 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bring in safer birds to our flock so that we are not introducing infected birds 

when we restock our poultry flocks or bring in new birds. Buy your birds 

only from National Poultry Improvement Plan-participating breeders and 

hatcheries, or dealers that participate in our avian influenza programs. The 

safer birds are going to be younger, so hatching eggs or day-old chicks 

would be the best way to restock your flock or bring in new birds. The 

riskiest birds would be ones obtained from auction or a flea market or older 

birds of unknown origin. Next slide, please. 

Some other biosecurity measures that might be practical for you would be 

to make sure you use different equipment for handling feed from the 

equipment that you use to handle manure. So you’ve got a set of tools for 

feeding the birds and then you’ve got a different set of tools that are used 

to clean up the houses. If you have to use the same equipment for feed and 

manure, make sure you clean and disinfect those tools thoroughly between 

those types of chores. Never share tools with other flock owners. If you 

have to do this, make sure you wash and disinfect the equipment or coops 

or cages, anything you might share with another flock owner, wash and 

disinfect that thoroughly or just avoid it all together. 

Dedicated clothing and shoes are really helpful. If you can establish a line of 

separation that separates the place where you house your birds from the 

rest of the world, and that anybody who crosses that line needs to wear that 

dedicated pair of shoes or outer clothing, that's going to help prevent them 

from bringing the virus into the area where your birds live. Hand washing is 

really important for all types of pathogens including avian influenza, which is 

pretty easily destroyed just with soap and water. Hand washing is super 

important. If you can’t have access to soap and water, then hand sanitizer is 

a close second to that. The quarantine for new birds is also a good measure 

to use, but don't introduce new birds right away to your existing flock. 

Isolate them. Keep them separate from your birds for 30 days, and separate 

them by at least 30 feet, or the sneeze zone of a chicken, before you place 

them in with your flock. If they exhibit any signs during the isolation period, 

do not introduce those birds to your flock. Ask for veterinary help, either 

through your diagnostic laboratory, a veterinarian, or another person who 

can help you with diagnosing a problem in that flock. 

Those are some of the quick tips on prevention. We have a lot of 

biosecurity information on the Defend the Flock website, and I’ll give you 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

those resources towards the end of the presentation. Those are some 

highlights of things that I know are feasible for me and my small flock and 

just about any flock of any size out there. Next, I will go into what happens if 

you experience a disease nearby in your area, in your neighborhood, and 

hopefully this will never occur, if you should experience a disease on your 

farm. I will give you some ideas of what might happen in those cases and 

how you can prepare for this. Next slide please. 

The first part would be the contingency plan. I’ll talk about what to do if 

you’re close to an infected farm. Later on, I will talk to you about a response 

plan, where you might be dealing with the infection actually on your farm. 

What do you do if you are in what we call a control area, which is an area 

that is generally 10 kilometers around an infected premises. You might 

have to live in that area for a while, while that infection is cleaned up. We 

know that flocks that are in the control area are at much higher risk at 

becoming infected simply because we know we have infected wild birds in 

the area, and we also have poultry movements off of that farm that could 

spread the virus throughout that community. 

You will have to think about how you will continue your business and how 

you will continue your farm activities, particularly if you have public 

visitation, while under quarantine, because if you’re in a control area, your 

movements, birds, and products will likely be restricted by the state 

veterinarian. And you’ll need to figure out procedures for allowing visitors, 

or if you will continue to allow visitors. I think that's the first question. If 

you’re in a control area, will you stop public visitation or how will you try to 

make that a bit safer so that your visitors aren't likely to bring the virus on to 

your property. Then consider measures, enhanced biosecurity measures 

beyond your everyday activities, that you could do to keep the disease out 

since your flock is at higher risk being in that control area. 

You might consider whether you’ve got high valued birds, such as a 

pedigree or show stock or particularly irreplaceable strains of birds, and 

what you might do to keep those separate from, certainly wild birds, but any 

other poultry. You might think about how you can manage traffic patterns 

on that farm so that you can continue other parts of the operation such as, 

let's say, milk sales, vegetable sales, or interactions with other types of 

species, and then separate out your poultry flock so that you don't have 

visitor contact with them. You might be able to redesign your traffic 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

patterns on your farm to avoid those areas where the poultry are kept. And 

there are other ways to manage your visitors, such as providing dedicated 

parking areas, asking visitors whether they have had any exposure to 

poultry in the recent past. The high-risk period that we would think of would 

be about 14 days prior to visiting your farm. You should probably ask 

visitors whether they have had any exposure to birds at home or other 

places and ask them to refrain from having any contact with your birds if 

they have had contact with birds off your farm. Those are suggestions to 

think about in your contingency plan, about how you’re going to maintain 

your business and your activities in the space of nearby outbreak, and 

trying to keep that disease out at the same time you are trying to keep your 

business going. 

I will go on to the response plan ideas. A lot of things that can be done in 

preparedness, both in trying to live in a control area and keep going with 

your business, to not have it impact you in a big way. There are also a lot of 

things that you can prepare ahead of time in case your flock becomes 

infected. I really hope you are never faced with this, but flock owners who 

are prepared to deal with this generally are able to recover faster and 

without the impacts to your economic or even the stress level of dealing 

with this outbreak, if they thought about this ahead of time and had done 

some preparedness. I will just touch on some high points of the 

preparedness points. 

Many of us have multiple activities happening on our farms, or might have 

public visitors interacting with dairy animals or sheep and goats or picking 

vegetables or fruit. If we can, it would be great if we can separate those 

non-poultry activities from the poultry sides of the business so that we can 

deal with the flock and clean up that flock and get back in business while 

still keeping those other parts of the business unaffected. So, talk to your 

state veterinarian or your private practitioner about how you might be able 

to make that poultry area epidemiologically distinct from other areas of the 

farm. Think about where you might, if your flock’s infected, where you’re 

going to put a decontamination line, because every infected flock is going 

to need a place where they can clean and disinfect vehicles, equipment, 

people, on and off that premises, because there will be a lot of activity in 

trying to clean up that infected flock. 

Here is the hard part to talk about. We need to take care of those infected 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

birds. We know if they are infected with this virus, that most of them will die. 

And they will suffer. So the thing that we need to do to stop their suffering 

and to prevent the spread of this disease is to euthanize them, depopulate 

them, as quicky as we possibly can to prevent that spread and to stop their 

suffering. There are a number of ways that this can be carried out. Talking 

about this ahead of time with your veterinarian or your state vet or another 

expert can really help you get through a very, very stressful moment, and 

be able to do the best you can, mainly taking care of your birds. I 

encourage you to have the discussion of how you would carry that out 

ahead of time. There are a number of options. Then the birds need to be 

disposed of after that euthanasia occurs. There are a number of ways that 

that can be carried out. Composting is a very common method that's used. 

In other places, burial might be allowed by the state authorities, or you may 

even be able to use a landfill or incinerator depending on where you live. 

So that’s another thing that you could plan out. How will you take care of a 

large number of birds that have died? 

Then we talk about cleaning and disinfecting, eliminating the virus from the 

premises so that you can go back into the business of raising poultry safely. 

Again, there are a number of ways that this can be carried out, such as with 

active dry cleaning and applying a wet disinfectant. Sometimes we can heat 

buildings in order to destroy the virus. As horrible as this virus is to poultry 

and what it does to them, it really isn't very tough. We can inactivate that 

virus pretty easily, so that part of it is not as much of a challenge as what it 

does to the birds. Then we need to be prepared for the downtime, because 

it's going to take time to get through this entire process. We will need to 

wait for 14 days after the cleaning and disinfection is complete in order to 

be able to think about restocking. Your state veterinarian will talk with you 

about what it takes to release the quarantine and restock the flock. 

Ultimately, what we are wanting to do is to be able to safely restock that 

farm as quickly as possible and get everybody back to the activities and the 

businesses that they enjoy doing. 

So, this is the key part of our message. We all have to take care of our 

nation's flocks by reporting sick birds promptly so we can identify this 

infection. The key to it is rapidly identifying it and rapidly stopping the 

spread of this virus. It's not possible to know if your flock has this disease 

unless you do lab tests, so lab tests are required to diagnose avian 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

influenza. Our labs are very, very good at running excellent tests that are 

highly accurate at detecting this infection. To do this, to report sick birds, 

contact your veterinarian or your local county cooperative extension office, 

or your state veterinarian. Let them know right away and they will send an 

investigator out to help collect those samples and get them into the 

laboratory. You can also call us at USDA. This toll-free number will get you 

to your state veterinarian in charge and they will be able to initiate an 

investigation right away. That number is 866-536-7593. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: Thank you so much, Doctor Gauthier, really helpful 

information. 

We are going to transition to hearing about Pineland Farms’ experience. 

Cathryn, your educational farm in Maine experienced a high path scare in 

the spring of 2022. Can you share with us your experience of going through 

that high path investigation? 

Cathryn Anderson:Yeah. Thanks, Vera. 

As you can see here, we are 5,000-acre farm with a diverse business 

campus, an educational venue, also an extensive recreational facility with 

Nordic skiing, disc golf, hiking trails, biking trails, that type of thing. Our 

mission is to provide a productive and educational venue that enriches the 

community by demonstrating responsible farming techniques, offering 

educational opportunities, and encouraging a healthy lifestyle through 

recreation. Next slide, please. 

We utilize hands-on opportunities as much as possible. We see over 40,000 

visitors a year through our farmyard area, the hub of our educational 

facility. Those visitors most of the time are coming to participate in an 

experience that they can't get other places. Those experiences, a lot of 

time, look like egg collecting activity. And that's been kind of a go to activity 

that we would utilize for years to engage our visitors and our flock of laying 

hens. We have about 450 to 500 free-range hens living in the same location 

that we welcome all of our visitors to, and the separation of those areas can 

be challenging. Next slide, please. 

In the spring of 2022, we lost approximately 20 birds from our laying flock. 

That raised concern that we had contacted high path AI, and so we went 

through the process of preparing to depopulate all of those birds. Again, 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

approximately 450 to 500 laying hens, and mixed breed. We have a couple 

pea fowl and fun birds as well for kiddos to learn about. So we went 

through that process until we got cleared. I'm very, very thankful that was 

the outcome for our story. Why did we think we had it? We saw some 

abnormal behavior in our flock. We had six birds that were dead, and there 

was no outward sign of anything that was wrong. We had two hens that we 

identified with swollen eyes, and we also saw a decrease in egg production. 

And some of those signs really triggered that this could be what we were 

dealing with. 

On March 23rd, we called our state hot line. Once I called, it was a very 

rapid and continuous process. It was about 48 hours of just continuous 

phone calls from the state vet and other groups to kind of talk us through 

how and what this was going to look like. That afternoon, we had someone 

come and test the birds, and we were placed under a verbal quarantine, 

which meant we had to withhold our eggs from sale, which is one of the 

ways that we engage visitors with our farm, through egg sales at our 

market. Then the next day, the composting team from the state came down, 

and we went through everything from, you know, if we were able to 

compost on site, if we had any of the needed facilities and what those might 

be, a covered dump truck, a loader, horse manure (because of how fast it 

heats up and how hot it can get), and the personnel that would be needed. 

Then the afternoon of March 24th, just over 24 hours later, we got a 

negative result, which was very, very welcomed on our end. 

So that you know what was going to happen if it had been a positive result: 

all the birds on the property would have to be depopulated within 48 h ours 

of results. For us, we are open every day for visitors: that meant that we 

were going to have to rapidly close down our farm to all visitation and get 

our staffing in place to be able to handle that and our messaging going out 

to our visitors, and again collecting the needed resources if we had them. 

Were we able to compost on site? Did we have a covered dump truck to 

move the birds from one location and personnel to help with that? How it 

was going to happen. These were all things that the state vet was able to 

help put in place, but there were questions that we didn't know ahead of 

time and really had no idea how it was going to work. And then the reality 

that we wouldn't be able to reintroduce any new birds for a set amount of 

time, and how that set amount of time was somewhat dependent on some 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

environmental concerns and whatnot. It was really extensive. The 

Department of Agriculture, their PR team was put in touch with us to help 

control messaging that would go out and how we would handle that. As an 

educational farm, we did feel it was important to be able to try and have 

some kind of educational opportunity within this, but it was a struggle. So, 

really, we kind of had a crash course in what it might look like if you had a 

positive case. High path AI was always on the back of our mind, but it 

certainly wasn’t front and center as it is now. I think to summarize, the 

important piece for us was that we really got a crash course in it, but it was 

really valuable to go through that process. 

Thank you for letting me share. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: Thank you so much for sharing, Cathryn. Helpful to 

hear your real experience with it. We’re going to transition now into 

answering your questions. These are questions that you submitted at the 

time you registered. Thank you for the wonderful questions that you 

submitted. For questions that we don't get to today, we will post responses 

along with the recording of this program, and that will go in the APHIS 

website. You can check out the APHIS social media channels as well for 

updates of when that is ready. 

Our first question is, what animals carry high path AI and what animals are 

at risk? 

Dr. Julie Gauthier: These were great questions, weren't they, Vera? We 

had a lot of really good questions from registrants. I'm sorry that we can't 

get through all of them, but we will do the best we can to answer most of 

them. 

This list grows every day. We have seen an amazing variety of wild birds 

and even mammals that are carrying this particular outbreak strain of virus 

in the United States this year. Avian influenza in general, and these 

infections in nature, are very common in waterfowl, like ducks and geese, 

and shore birds, such as gulls and terns. Usually, they don't cause any 

signs of disease in these birds, or they might cause mild illness. Sometimes 

the AI virus will adapt itself to affect poultry. That's bad news, when it gets 

used to affecting poultry. That's when we see the outbreaks, and that's what 

happened this year. This particular strain of the virus has adapted to 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

affecting poultry and causing very severe disease. You can see the whole 

range of wild birds that our surveillance has found the disease in listed on 

our website. We have got a link to that in the chat so you can check that out 

yourself. [See below for links.] I will say that predators also are succumbing 

to this infection. Any animals that prey on those infected wild birds are also 

coming down with the disease. We have seen the infection in birds of prey, 

like owls and hawks and eagles, and scavenger birds like vultures. We’ve 

also seen it in foxes, bobcats, coyotes, and seals, presumably because they 

are preying on wild birds that have the infection. 

Then I also get asked about cats and dogs and other animals. AI virus has 

very rarely affected cats and dogs, usually because they are eating dead 

birds or dying birds. We really haven’t seen that in the United States, but it 

has been reported in other parts of the world, as well as Lions and tigers in 

zoos who are feeding on infected bird carcasses. Although avian influenza 

occasionally can affect people, we are not seeing that with this particular 

strain of the virus. Despite the fact that we’ve had hundreds or maybe even 

thousands of responders now who have been helping us control the 

outbreak, we don't have any evidence that anyone in the United States has 

been infected or sick from the virus so far. 

Among the poultry we see very, very high death rates. Sometimes the 

entire flock will die. Turkeys are very susceptible, peacocks, pheasants, 

guineas, geese and swans, some long neck birds. Chickens are next on the 

list as far as the severity of the illness, and then ducks. Because they are 

waterfowl and natural carriers of the virus, they are likely to survive the 

infection actually, but they can serve as a source of infection to other birds. 

Go to the next question. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: How do I minimize my flock's exposure to wild 

birds? 

Dr. Julie Gauthier: This is the key for flocks that are outdoors in 

preventing them from becoming infected with this virus, because wild birds 

are doing most of the spreading this time. And the big one, like I mentioned 

before, is ponds. Please keep your birds off ponds. Do what you can to 

confine them to an area away from wild waterfowl, because that is the 

primary risk at this time. The other item is to discourage wilds birds from 

feeding with your birds. Put those feeders and waterers under cover, 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

whether it’s inside a barn or shed or at least under netting. Pick up any bird 

carcasses on the property rapidly, making sure that the virus isn’t getting 

around. As we know, our chickens are little dinosaurs; they will snack on 

just about anything they can find in their environment. Some producers are 

using visual deterrents or sound deterrents. There are a lot of them out in 

the market now that will either make sounds such as hawk sounds or birds 

in distress, or even visual deterrents like owl decoys or swan decoys on 

ponds. Check out some of the items that are available as deterrents to wild 

birds coming onto the property. Netting overruns is helpful if you have to let 

your birds outdoors. Plus, I would check with your state vet to get on their 

alerts. Oftentimes you can sign up for e-mail alerts to find out where cases 

are occurring in your county or in your neighborhood. Also check out the 

APHIS site that shows the wild bird and domestic poultry detections, 

because you can determine whether you are in a county where cases are 

occurring and determine if they are at higher risk. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: How do I know if my flock is infected with high path 

AI or if they have something else? 

Dr. Julie Gauthier: Great question. I have seen a lot of avian influenza in 

all sorts of birds, and I can't tell if a bird is infected with avian influenza by 

looking at them. You have to do laboratory tests in order to know this. I 

might have very high suspicion based on most of the flock having died 

rapidly within a few days, but I can’t know for sure without a test. The PCR 

test that our labs use is very accurate at detection of this virus. So, call 

someone to get them out there and conduct an investigation and collect 

those lab samples- your veterinary diagnostic lab. And I would encourage 

everyone to find where, if you don't know, what your closest veterinarian 

diagnostic lab is to you. They can help you out with postmortem 

examinations and testing for other diseases besides AI to let you know 

whether you have got something else in your flock. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: Thanks, Julie, how long will high path AI circulate in 

wild bird populations and how will this affect interactions between chickens 

and farm visitors next season? 

Dr. Julie Gauthier: Oh you’re going to ask me to get my crystal ball out. 

This, we all have to speculate on. I can tell you about how the avian 

influenza viruses behave in nature, and that they are changing all the time. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Avian influenzas like to mutate into something else, and eventually wild bird 

populations become somewhat immune to the common strains that are out 

there. The types of strains that are in the wild bird populations tend to vary 

by year or every couple of years, and then we will see a new strain come 

along. I expect that will happen with this one. I don't think we will be 

burdened with this particular strain forever. How long will it take before we 

see something new and less pathogenic to our birds, I don't know. I think 

we are going to be in for a rough fall, possibly even next spring based on 

what happened in Europe. This virus has hit them hard over the past two 

years, and I kind of expect that that’s what will happen here. So buckle up. I 

think we need to be really vigilant and careful, for the next fall at least, and 

possibly into the spring. Keep an eye on the APHIS website and your state 

veterinarian’s alerts and announcements to know what the situation is 

currently. Hopefully next summer, we will be out of this and will be able to 

get back into a more normal lifestyle. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: Is there a vaccine for high path AI? 

Dr. Julie Gauthier: There is, and it is used in some parts of the world, in 

countries that have decided to live with the disease and not stamp it out. So 

far, there isn't a vaccine that is approved for use in poultry in the United 

States. But we do have poultry scientists who are evaluating the currently 

available vaccines or even modifying the currently available vaccine to be a 

very good match for this particular strain. They are testing it to make sure 

that it is very effective and protective for our poultry. That work’s ongoing, 

so possibly in the future we might consider use of a vaccine in the United 

States. 

But I have got to talk to you about the advantages and disadvantages. The 

advantages of using vaccines is that it does reduce disease, so, birds can 

survive. The disadvantage is that birds still get infected with the virus 

despite being vaccinated. That can happen, and they do still shed the virus, 

although at a lower level. What that does is, it makes it really hard to find 

infected flocks and really hard to stop them from spreading the infection 

from farm to farm. On top of that, countries and consumers might not want 

to buy poultry or poultry products from the United States if we start 

vaccinating our poultry. That’s probably the biggest barrier to the use of 

vaccines right now. And it doesn't eliminate the need to stamp out infected 

flocks, so we would still need to depopulate infected flocks when we find 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

them if we want to eradicate the disease; if we want to get rid of it rather 

than just living with it, which I'm not ready to do yet. 

So, there are advantages and disadvantages to the vaccine, and we really 

need to take those into consideration. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: What's the risk of transmission through factors like 

air, feed, or dust? 

Dr. Julie Gauthier: Great question. As I mentioned, the big risk is wild 

birds. Right? That's 85 percent of it. Then we get into, what are the risks of 

these other things? I used to drive myself crazy trying to figure out which 

were the big risks that I needed to manage for my flock to protect them and 

think about things like air and feed and dust and other things. And I always 

have to tell myself, well, is it likely to happen that way? And then, is there 

anything that I can do about it? If it's unlikely or I can't do anything about it, I 

would tend to put that at a low priority of doing something about that. I 

would consider air to be one of those things that is unlikely, and also there's 

not much I can do about it. We do know that AI virus can spread through 

the air for short distances—we’re talking yards not miles—and it is quickly 

inactivated by sunlight, heat, drying, and soap and water. I put that way 

down on my list of things to worry about. Anything that a bird can sneeze 

on or poop on can carry the virus from place to place, including flies. So I 

would consider fly control more important than worrying about the air that 

my birds breathe. It can be overwhelming to think about all these risks. 

Feed should be safe if we prevent birds from getting in it, sneezing on it, or 

pooping in it. Keep feed bins closed and clean up spills right away. Don't 

allow your feed truck drivers to cross your line of separation to where you 

keep your birds. Just keep them at a distance. Then control flies. So those 

are things that you could do about the risk of feed, which I consider to be 

pretty minor when you consider the risk from wild birds. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: Another question is around how we maintain healthy 

poultry at fairs and shows? Cathryn, I wonder if you want to take this one 

first. 

Cathryn Anderson:I may not be the best person to answer this question 

because we don't take any of our birds off property, so Julie is probably 

going to be a better one here. But what I am seeing, at least in Maine, is 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

that this fall, there are not any bird shows or poultry shows at any of our 

agriculture fairs. Julie, why don't you jump in and let us know why, because 

that’s what I've seen. They’ve all been completely eliminated for this year. 

Dr. Julie Gauthier: Yeah, I agree with that measure in areas where this 

disease is ongoing. If we see cases in the counties, in the states, I really do 

support the idea of those organizers suspending live poultry shows. 

Because we can't really control disease if we are bringing birds in and then 

sending them back home. That's a great way to spread the virus if it should 

come in. Plus, I think how horrible that would be to talk to all of the 

exhibiters, including many young people, and tell them “Your bird is 

infected, we are going to have to destroy all of these birds.” I really would 

hate for that to happen, so I really do agree with organizers that are shutting 

down fairs and shows at this time. It's high-risk time. 

How do we maintain poultry health in general? I think there are a number of 

things that organizers can do that are helpful. That would be to have an 

entry area where they can inspect the birds prior to putting them in the 

main show hall. One really good technique is to have your... often head 

state inspectors will be out there to take a look at the birds to make sure 

they appear healthy. If we can examine those birds and make sure that they 

at least appear healthy before you put them in with all the others, that would 

be great, and we can send birds home that just don't meet our health 

requirements. That's one measure. I think anyone who exhibits birds or 

brings them to fairs and shows really needs to use the quarantine rule. If 

you are going to bring a bird back home from a show or a fair, make sure 

you quarantine that bird for 30 days away from your other poultry. Don’t 

just put them back in your flock. If that bird should exhibit signs of illness, 

get some help during that 30-day quarantine period. Those are a couple 

quick ones. We could go into a lot of other measures that you could take. I 

don't like to say that we can have a virus security plan for poultry fairs and 

shows, because you can't really keep them bio secure by bringing all those 

birds together, but we can have a disease control plan and maybe mitigate 

some of the risks. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: How do I reduce exposure to high path AI from 

vendors who might be coming, or folks who might be coming for farm share 

pickups. Either Cathryn or Julie, do you want to take this one? 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cathryn Anderson:I would be happy to jump in there. I think any time that 

you are open to visitors, anyone outside of the necessary staff to care for 

your flock, there are additional concerns, even without high path AI. Making 

sure you have really good biosecurity measures in place at your farm when 

you are open to the public is necessary. We really try and have our visitors 

come in and have an authentic experience, but that doesn't mean that we 

change our biosecurity measures, because that's part of protecting the 

assets that we have on our farm. We make sure that we have those 

measures, a policy in place to protect our livestock and visitors and our 

staff. And that's kind of part of my responsibility to those animals and those 

visitors. And I think Julie mentioned some thoughts before about changing 

the traffic flow, so visitors would stay away from your poultry area. And 

some of the other ones: limiting the contact with birds, having separate 

clothing and footwear when you come into contact with your flock, and 

asking anyone who is in contact with other poultry to refrain from having 

that experience while they are at your farm. I think all that can really help a 

little bit. 

Dr. Julie Gauthier: A hundred percent. Those will help mitigate some of 

that risk. With having the public there, you know you’re always bringing in 

some risk, but there are things that you can do that will help. I think of a 

couple of concepts that we promote through the Defend the Flock program. 

You can go the website and get more information on these. First is the 

perimeter buffer area, and the second is the line of separation. I think these 

are really, really useful zones to map on your own facility. You can establish 

a buffer area, which is a zone outside your bird enclosures that gives you 

space to work while you are caring for your birds, but it's separate from the 

rest of your property. This might be the area where you keep your feed bin 

and equipment to take care of the birds. Then your line of separation is the 

line that separates your poultry house from the rest of the world. You 

should be jealous about that one and really screen people: do they need to 

cross that line, or can we avoid that? Check out the information about 

creating a perimeter buffer area and then also a line of separation. A 

designated parking area can be really helpful. That would be probably 

inside your buffer area but not inside your line of separation. Don't allow the 

public to cross the line of separation where your birds are kept unless they 

need to. And consider curb side service if you are doing farm share pickups 

or other vendor activities. Just go to the car, don't have drivers get out. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another important item for all sorts of pathogens is hand washing and 

offering hand sanitizer at customer contact. And then for folks who are 

there in egg sales and handling eggs, use disposable packaging. If you 

have to use non-disposal flats, racks, or cases, make sure that you have got 

a cleaning and disinfection protocol for those. At least keep them outside 

your line of separation, if not outside your perimeter buffer area. Then have 

dedicated staff for poultry care so just the people who take care of the 

poultry, and no other people on the farm, need to cross that line and handle 

the birds. Just a few suggestions. There are many others that you could 

use. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: Thank you again, so much, for the questions. They 

were really great. Julie and Cathryn, thank you so much for answering 

them. We are going to show a few slides that share some resources so you 

all can leave with some continuous support. The first one, I believe, is the 

Farm-Based Education Network. This is a student who was visiting us at 

Shelburne Farms, and as part of her project, she was interviewing a 

chicken. Just a reminder of all the reasons that we love poultry: eggs, 

beautiful feathers, emotional connection, and things that maybe you never 

thought of before, like interviews. The Farm-Based Education Network is 

here for you if you are thinking about opening your farm to visitors, or you 

are already doing that and are interested in connecting with others who do 

that as well. 

Cathryn Anderson:We are available as well. You can find us on-line, 

Pineland Farms.org, on social media, Facebook, and Instagram. Reach out 

to me, and or the team here, and we would love to have you visit us. You 

can see this picture of one of our hens visiting with our education cow. We 

would love to be of any help if we can be. Thank you. 

Dr. Julie Gauthier: On our Defend the Flock website, which I mentioned a 

couple times throughout the presentation, you will find lots of free tools that 

you can download. These will provide some practical biosecurity tips and 

recommendations. This slide shows a sample of our library of checklists, 

and these checklists come in a variety of different languages. 

Our campaign also features biosecurity videos. We have recordings of our 

prior webinars, which we hold typically twice a year. We have infocards, 

newsletters, posters, and other resources that you can use and distribute. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APHIS has also created social media content that can help promote 

biosecurity, and you can use these in your own social media outreach. 

Infographics covering many of the best practices that I mentioned, these 

are available in English and Spanish. You can stay connected; visit our 

website and follow Defend the Flock on Facebook and Twitter. 

Vera Simon-Nobes: Thank you so much, Doctor Gauthier, and Cathryn, 

for sharing your valuable knowledge with us today, thank you all for coming. 

As you close-out your screen, you will see an invitation to take an 

anonymous short survey which will give us a little insight into your 

experience with this webinar. Please do keep an eye out for that. Thank 

you, Laura, and Alba, and everyone else on our team who helped make this 

webinar possible. We want to remind you all to remember that biosecurity is 

a team effort, and we need to work together to keep all of our flocks and 

farms and farm visitors safe and healthy. Thank you, everybody, have a 

great rest of your day. 

Links included in the chat: 

• 2022 Confirmations of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in 

Commercial and Backyard Flocks 

• 2022 Detections of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Wild Birds 

• USDA APHIS Response and Policy Information